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The presence or development of the vocal sac is one way of externally determining the sex of a frog or toad in many species; taking frogs as an example; The vocal sac is open to the mouth cavity of the frog, with two slits on either side of the tongue. To call, the frog inflates its lungs and shuts its nose and mouth.
Ribs are generally absent, so the lungs are filled by buccal pumping and a frog deprived of its lungs can maintain its body functions without them. [69] The fully aquatic Bornean flat-headed frog (Barbourula kalimantanensis) is the first frog known to lack lungs entirely. [72] Frogs have three-chambered hearts, a feature they share with lizards.
In the juvenile (or tadpole) stage, the circulation is similar to that of a fish; the two-chambered heart pumps the blood through the gills where it is oxygenated, and is spread around the body and back to the heart in a single loop. In the adult stage, amphibians (especially frogs) lose their gills and develop lungs.
Four-stroke buccal pumping is used by some basal ray-finned fish and aquatic amphibians such as Xenopus and Amphiuma. [1] This method has several stages. These will be described for an animal starting with lungs in a deflated state: First, the glottis (opening to the lungs) is closed, and the nostrils are opened.
The lungs of most frogs and other amphibians are simple and balloon-like, with gas exchange limited to the outer surface of the lung. This is not very efficient, but amphibians have low metabolic demands and can also quickly dispose of carbon dioxide by diffusion across their skin in water, and supplement their oxygen supply by the same method.
[100] [101] Lungs and swim bladders are homologous (descended from a common ancestral form) as is the case for the pulmonary artery (which delivers de-oxygenated blood from the heart to the lungs) and the arteries that supply swim bladders. [102] Air was introduced into the lungs by a process known as buccal pumping. [103] [104]
Cutaneous respiration is the sole respiratory mode of lungless salamanders (family Plethodontidae) which lack lungs entirely yet constitute the largest family of salamanders. Cutaneous respiration in frogs and other amphibians may be the primary respiratory mode during colder temperatures. [3]
Varying the position of the tongue in relation to the other articulators or moving the lips restricts the airflow from the lungs in different ways and changes the mouth's resonating properties, producing a range of different sounds. [27] In frogs, the sounds can be amplified using sacs in the throat region.